These athletes are honestly pissing me off, but I also think they’re being baited by European media who, by the way, never ever portrays Trump in a good light and is mad that we’re making them pull their own weight, but I digress.
It would have been a great idea for Team USA officials to have a media handling event and tell athletes that it’s perfectly ok to say ‘I have my opinions on events in my country, but I’m here to compete and I’d like to talk about that.’ Many of these athletes are young, kind of dumb, and sheltered. It’s their fault what comes out of their mouths, of course, but some guidelines might have saved some of these obnoxious statements.
Batya how do you do it? It's like you have a VPN straight wired to my mind. Then you write a piece so eloquently with the hard points thumbtacked dead center. You get to the core- narcissists. I could not pull the curtain back in my own mind to expose what it really boils down to, narcissistic youth. Brains boiled by elites.
Then you hit upon a point which has plagued me: why do reporters feel license to question American athletes and yet don't pose those same questions to anyone else or any other competitor. Ugh.
We the people are at fault here. We put our celebrities on pedestals they do not deserve to be on. No wonder it goes to the heads of actors, comedians, and athletes that they are more than just that. It is our obsession with celebrities that gives them an idea that their God given acting talents or outstanding physical abilities make them into intellectuals and leaders of the society when in reality they simply follow instructions of directors and acting or sport coaches and, of course, the liberal mass media that still controls most of our society.
That they parrot each other’s statements shows how little independent thinking they are capable of. And as an immigrant, who spent years fighting the Soviet govt for a right to leave the country and to become an American, I despise their lack of patriotism. They take for granted what others risked their lives for.
This is so perfectly said! Thank you! We all need to get a grip on our unmerited ‘esteem’. I truly hope these naive souls have an opportunity to compare notes with their foreign peers. And I hope they are schooled on how the Olympics actually started. And if your country does not represent ‘your morals’ (which he mentioned others share, so, …. he is a lemming….) then your ‘morals’ should not allow you to represent the Country.
I hope they walk these back in the future when their brain stems connect.
Nobody asked them to compete on a debate team focusing on politics or policy. The viewership ratings in sports goes down when politics are injected - this is fact. We watch sports to see a meritocracy and root for our team, our city, our country. The Olympic logo is interconnected rings signifying unity. Nobody is to selfishly take one of those rings away to satiate your ego. If they want to turn off viewers, turn off revenue, turn off endorsements, and turn off sports as an escape from partisan political politics - then keep swirling down the drain and drown in your own narcissism.
Not one drop of gratitude from these individuals. They have no shame, loyalty, or integrity. How dare they compete for a country they hate. They should all self deport from the games in protest.
So well said, Batya. The behavior of these athletes has made the Olympics far less appealing to watch for me. Historically, the draw was national unity, competing for your country. For many American athletes this has been replaced by a focus on political agendas while forgetting they are competing for team USA and national pride. It's simple, if you lack that pride, don't compete.
Curious that you don't hear these gripes from, say, athlete Ilia Malinin, the son of Russian immigrants. That's probably because he was raised with a healthy dose of appreciation of what freedom really is (and is not).
It begs the question: why are you competing for the US if you're so disappointed and/or conflicted about the Stars and Stripes?
A more effective and less confusing expression of your moral code would be to boycott. But of course then you wouldn't get the perks, or the global stage on which you can shame your fellow Americans.
He meets the definition of fascist. I don’t however think he is a racist in the way that leftist idiots throw it around. He’s a narcissist. But he meets the definition of it to a tee. He hasn’t yet met every bit of the criterium, and confident he won’t, but enough of them. Listen to this if you have time. Lays out a pretty damning and academic case for it.
I think Donald Trump is a disaster. I fly an American flag not because I support his dumbass but because I support what it stands for. I’m proud to be an American, but I’d have mixed feelings about representing the USA with this disparity at the helm.
Typical liberal dogshit opinion. I love this country, but…..my team lost the election so, maybe not today. Funny, I don’t remember media members asking olympians there opinion on the brain dead Biden allowing millions of illegals to flood the country. Which by the way is why we are in this mess today. I guess you just love illegal aliens flooding cities, sucking up jobs and benefits on your dime. Most of us don’t, and want all of them gone yesterday.
If you must know, I’ve spent most of my time blasting progressives and leftists for their bullshit to their faces in the city where I live, Portland, OR. But I have to call a spade a spade. Mamdani is a communist grifter, Trump is an actual fascist, Bernie is delusional, JD Vance is an opportunistic authoritarian.
Again, I don’t care that he’s president, I care that he’s a fucking fascist. I’ve even agreed with many of his statements about the left or about the failures of the American politicians in general. Very good at identifying problems, a disaster at executing the solutions.
Tell me you have no idea what the definition of a fascist is without telling me you have no idea what the definition of a fascist is. I’ll look for you holding up a no kings sign on the corner up the street from my house with the rest of the brain dead boomers next Tuesday.
I’m not a Trump fanboy by any stretch of the imagination. Not sure where you got that idea. I like how he’s trying to handle the immigration mess, maybe a few other things. Don’t really have faith in any politicians. But the idea he’s a fascist, a racist, a king or other such nonsense is just a retarded take.
So many Americans who excel in their field, e.g., acting, playing sports, entertaining, etc. apparently now think they are authorities on our culture and politics. Certainly they all have a right in our great country to express their opinions, but based on what I've heard in the past, I simply ignore them all now. For example, Amber Glenn's ridiculous statement about having a "hard time" in a "challenging period" as a member of the LGBTQ+ community is ridiculous, given how many of them are represented in the Trump administration at the highest levels.
I don't know whether it's ignorance or just that they feel compelled or pressured to align with the stupid.
As an American she can say what she wants. The president made fun of murder victims in December and call an athlete a “loser”. I don’t know, maybe just maybe one persons opinion is more influential than the others’ here.
Would we have condemned athletes for saying, during the civil rights movement, that they don’t agree with everything happening, like sicking dogs and fire hoses on nonviolent protesters? Unarmed patriotic Americans are being shot and killed by ICE. Even if you agree with deporting illegals, it seems to me you can disagree with some of what we’re seeing. I love your work Batya, and respect you, but you’re assigning intent to words I did not hear. Please don’t become purposefully divisive. We have enough talking heads who do that.
at the end of the day you can always see that everything hinges on pretending that the only motivation for wanting any of these policies is “obviously driven by hatred of people who are different”, which is never substantiated in the least. Always a presumption of motive that allows us to ignore people real concerns. It can’t possibly be because we value everyone playing by the same rules or that objectively many of these policies have proven to fail because they do not aim for assimilation and have contributed to wage stagnation and imported slave labor. No it can’t possibly be nuanced. Truly makes me wonder how we can ever unify again if it’s always going to be this brain dead simple to castigate where half the country is coming from.
Thank you for posting this. Tried to write about it myself, but gave up and went out for a walk. Didn’t watch the Super Bowl either. Americans disparaging America fatigue.
So obviously Amber Glenn would have no problem with a formerly male now female skater defeating her for a spot on the podium because the latter did more and better quads in “her” routine. So shallow.
America is more than a single leader or a single policy or a single event. Young people (and some older) have completely lost the capacity for nuance … I may respect your abilities as an athlete, but it doesn’t necessarily mean I like you as a person.
These athletes are honestly pissing me off, but I also think they’re being baited by European media who, by the way, never ever portrays Trump in a good light and is mad that we’re making them pull their own weight, but I digress.
It would have been a great idea for Team USA officials to have a media handling event and tell athletes that it’s perfectly ok to say ‘I have my opinions on events in my country, but I’m here to compete and I’d like to talk about that.’ Many of these athletes are young, kind of dumb, and sheltered. It’s their fault what comes out of their mouths, of course, but some guidelines might have saved some of these obnoxious statements.
The idea of guidelines is good.
Batya how do you do it? It's like you have a VPN straight wired to my mind. Then you write a piece so eloquently with the hard points thumbtacked dead center. You get to the core- narcissists. I could not pull the curtain back in my own mind to expose what it really boils down to, narcissistic youth. Brains boiled by elites.
Then you hit upon a point which has plagued me: why do reporters feel license to question American athletes and yet don't pose those same questions to anyone else or any other competitor. Ugh.
Batya’s amazing, love her.
We the people are at fault here. We put our celebrities on pedestals they do not deserve to be on. No wonder it goes to the heads of actors, comedians, and athletes that they are more than just that. It is our obsession with celebrities that gives them an idea that their God given acting talents or outstanding physical abilities make them into intellectuals and leaders of the society when in reality they simply follow instructions of directors and acting or sport coaches and, of course, the liberal mass media that still controls most of our society.
That they parrot each other’s statements shows how little independent thinking they are capable of. And as an immigrant, who spent years fighting the Soviet govt for a right to leave the country and to become an American, I despise their lack of patriotism. They take for granted what others risked their lives for.
This is so perfectly said! Thank you! We all need to get a grip on our unmerited ‘esteem’. I truly hope these naive souls have an opportunity to compare notes with their foreign peers. And I hope they are schooled on how the Olympics actually started. And if your country does not represent ‘your morals’ (which he mentioned others share, so, …. he is a lemming….) then your ‘morals’ should not allow you to represent the Country.
I hope they walk these back in the future when their brain stems connect.
Nobody asked them to compete on a debate team focusing on politics or policy. The viewership ratings in sports goes down when politics are injected - this is fact. We watch sports to see a meritocracy and root for our team, our city, our country. The Olympic logo is interconnected rings signifying unity. Nobody is to selfishly take one of those rings away to satiate your ego. If they want to turn off viewers, turn off revenue, turn off endorsements, and turn off sports as an escape from partisan political politics - then keep swirling down the drain and drown in your own narcissism.
Not one drop of gratitude from these individuals. They have no shame, loyalty, or integrity. How dare they compete for a country they hate. They should all self deport from the games in protest.
I’m coping with these athletes’ disappointment in me and my policy preferences. It’s the Obamas’ disappointment that I simply can’t handle 😆
So well said, Batya. The behavior of these athletes has made the Olympics far less appealing to watch for me. Historically, the draw was national unity, competing for your country. For many American athletes this has been replaced by a focus on political agendas while forgetting they are competing for team USA and national pride. It's simple, if you lack that pride, don't compete.
Curious that you don't hear these gripes from, say, athlete Ilia Malinin, the son of Russian immigrants. That's probably because he was raised with a healthy dose of appreciation of what freedom really is (and is not).
It begs the question: why are you competing for the US if you're so disappointed and/or conflicted about the Stars and Stripes?
A more effective and less confusing expression of your moral code would be to boycott. But of course then you wouldn't get the perks, or the global stage on which you can shame your fellow Americans.
He meets the definition of fascist. I don’t however think he is a racist in the way that leftist idiots throw it around. He’s a narcissist. But he meets the definition of it to a tee. He hasn’t yet met every bit of the criterium, and confident he won’t, but enough of them. Listen to this if you have time. Lays out a pretty damning and academic case for it.
https://youtu.be/1Zq9Zh8DjZo?si=vjXL-5tiW79okTd_
I think Donald Trump is a disaster. I fly an American flag not because I support his dumbass but because I support what it stands for. I’m proud to be an American, but I’d have mixed feelings about representing the USA with this disparity at the helm.
Typical liberal dogshit opinion. I love this country, but…..my team lost the election so, maybe not today. Funny, I don’t remember media members asking olympians there opinion on the brain dead Biden allowing millions of illegals to flood the country. Which by the way is why we are in this mess today. I guess you just love illegal aliens flooding cities, sucking up jobs and benefits on your dime. Most of us don’t, and want all of them gone yesterday.
If you must know, I’ve spent most of my time blasting progressives and leftists for their bullshit to their faces in the city where I live, Portland, OR. But I have to call a spade a spade. Mamdani is a communist grifter, Trump is an actual fascist, Bernie is delusional, JD Vance is an opportunistic authoritarian.
Again, I don’t care that he’s president, I care that he’s a fucking fascist. I’ve even agreed with many of his statements about the left or about the failures of the American politicians in general. Very good at identifying problems, a disaster at executing the solutions.
Tell me you have no idea what the definition of a fascist is without telling me you have no idea what the definition of a fascist is. I’ll look for you holding up a no kings sign on the corner up the street from my house with the rest of the brain dead boomers next Tuesday.
oh he’s a fascist.
Where’s your red line with Trump? I broke with Biden over immigration and woke bullshit. Do u have such a line?
I’m not a Trump fanboy by any stretch of the imagination. Not sure where you got that idea. I like how he’s trying to handle the immigration mess, maybe a few other things. Don’t really have faith in any politicians. But the idea he’s a fascist, a racist, a king or other such nonsense is just a retarded take.
So many Americans who excel in their field, e.g., acting, playing sports, entertaining, etc. apparently now think they are authorities on our culture and politics. Certainly they all have a right in our great country to express their opinions, but based on what I've heard in the past, I simply ignore them all now. For example, Amber Glenn's ridiculous statement about having a "hard time" in a "challenging period" as a member of the LGBTQ+ community is ridiculous, given how many of them are represented in the Trump administration at the highest levels.
I don't know whether it's ignorance or just that they feel compelled or pressured to align with the stupid.
As an American she can say what she wants. The president made fun of murder victims in December and call an athlete a “loser”. I don’t know, maybe just maybe one persons opinion is more influential than the others’ here.
Would we have condemned athletes for saying, during the civil rights movement, that they don’t agree with everything happening, like sicking dogs and fire hoses on nonviolent protesters? Unarmed patriotic Americans are being shot and killed by ICE. Even if you agree with deporting illegals, it seems to me you can disagree with some of what we’re seeing. I love your work Batya, and respect you, but you’re assigning intent to words I did not hear. Please don’t become purposefully divisive. We have enough talking heads who do that.
IOC should add virtue signaling as an event. #me, myself, and I
at the end of the day you can always see that everything hinges on pretending that the only motivation for wanting any of these policies is “obviously driven by hatred of people who are different”, which is never substantiated in the least. Always a presumption of motive that allows us to ignore people real concerns. It can’t possibly be because we value everyone playing by the same rules or that objectively many of these policies have proven to fail because they do not aim for assimilation and have contributed to wage stagnation and imported slave labor. No it can’t possibly be nuanced. Truly makes me wonder how we can ever unify again if it’s always going to be this brain dead simple to castigate where half the country is coming from.
Yes, imagine if some competitors in a sport decided that the rules of that sport didn’t apply to them. They’d well and truly lose!
Thank you for posting this. Tried to write about it myself, but gave up and went out for a walk. Didn’t watch the Super Bowl either. Americans disparaging America fatigue.
Spoiled, entitled brats
So obviously Amber Glenn would have no problem with a formerly male now female skater defeating her for a spot on the podium because the latter did more and better quads in “her” routine. So shallow.
America is more than a single leader or a single policy or a single event. Young people (and some older) have completely lost the capacity for nuance … I may respect your abilities as an athlete, but it doesn’t necessarily mean I like you as a person.